GILGIT, Jan 30: Members of the Northern Areas Legislative Council (NALC) belonging to Diamer district have demanded that the policy on criteria of age and education for the forthcoming recruitment in the police department should be amen-ded.

Speaking at a council’s session on Thursday, Haji Amir Jan and Rahmat Khaliq said that being the remotest part of the country, the Northern Areas could not be compared with other parts in terms of education.

They contended that owing to the prolonged ban on recruitment in the public sector many young people had exceeded the age limit of 25 years.

The members demanded that the education prerequisite for the police constables recruitment should be relegated to primary or middle level from matriculation.

Similarly, they said, aspirants should be given age relaxation up to 30 years.

Wazeer Baig, another Northern Areas Legislative Council member from Hunza, speaking on a supplementary question said that the recruitment policy should have been framed in consultation with the public representatives, because, he said, the NALC was a representative forum of the region where all the important matters were supposed to be discussed.

Sarfraz Shah of Ghizer district raised an objection to quota allocations in the recruitment of police department and asked for equal share in jobs for the police.

He argued that the crime rate in his district had risen over the past decade, which he attributed to insufficient police force in Ghizer.